a podcast for and about divorced people
Why is divorce one of the few remaining taboo topics in our very outspoken culture? Why can’t we discuss more openly something that happens to half of our legal unions? Can you predict if your own marriage is headed towards divorce? What happens inside our homes that no one else sees? Why is marriage SO DIFFICULT? And why are we so dang judgey of divorced people?
Let’s pull back the curtains and talk.
divorce doula, stigma hater, amateur podcast maker.
NICOLE QUALLEN
Divorced person and divorce fangirl here, and I will be your podcast host. I have been asking all the questions about divorce since I went through my first one in 2009, and I’m really just getting started. By day, I work as a collaborative divorce attorney in my law practice, Two Families Law, where I have witnessed and cared for hundreds of families traveling through the big split. In this work, my team and I see awe-worthy vulnerability, pain, tenderness, honesty, horror, and, eventually, growth. These magical and terrible experiences are so in need of being shared more widely, and I have a hunch that they will help you too.
On the Divorced People podcast, Nicole will be speaking with divorced people of different ages, backgrounds, foregrounds, nationalities, classes, cultures, stories, opinions, emotions, and experiences. We’ll talk about the engagement, the wedding, the middle, and the end. We’ll get into topics of trauma, childhood, money, attachment, treatment, resilience, recovery, and ultimately, healing (or not). We will prioritize both respect and candor, boundaries and truth. We’re going all in.
Thank you for being brave enough to explore this touchy topic with us. We’re cheering you on.
Natalie Christley
Hi, I’m Natalie and I’m your Divorced People Podcast co-host and Associate Producer!
As someone who grew up as a millennial in a Christian, Egyptian household, I heard all of the reasons why you shouldn’t divorce, and none of why you should! Divorce was taboo. Marriage was stories of fairytales and RomComs, where everything is happily ever after and the jerk ends up being the cute guy you fall for! Rarely do those fairytales and RomComs show you what happens after you get married…when the jerk isn’t so cute anymore and is just a jerk.
I know what you’re probably thinking, I must be divorced since I’m on a podcast called Divorced People, but I’m not! I’ve been married to my high school boyfriend for 11 years now. It hasn’t always been a fairytale. When you get married in your early twenties and started dating as teenagers, it rarely is! You must both grow into adults still and somehow figure out how to do that together and in a way that still meshes well years down the road! The odds are stacked against us, but we somehow have beaten them.
So why am I on this podcast? What do I have to contribute to a podcast about divorce? Well, first off, this podcast is about divorce, but as our tagline says, it’s also about marriage and what happens in it! Before every divorce, comes a marriage, and there are so many lessons we can learn for our own marriage by hearing stories from divorced people. I’m also a Paralegal & Client Relations Manager at Two Families Law. I work alongside Nicole every day to help families navigate the world of divorce and ultimately, hopefully, end up as two healthy families. I learn from our clients every day about their lives and see their journey and the beginning of their healing. I’m always inspired by their strength, vulnerability, and compassion. Every meeting they put their pain and pride aside and prioritize being collaborative with their soon to be ex-spouse so they can create a new life of peace and sometimes co-parenting.
Watching our clients every day has made me think back to what my own views on divorce were growing up. I’ve learned that I no longer buy into that philosophy that divorce is bad and that you should never divorce. Divorce can be healing. Divorce can be beautiful. Divorce can be freedom & safety. I want to use this podcast as a platform to break this stigma around divorce and help people who are hurting or struggling in their own marriages or who are coming out of a divorce and needing to know that there is beautiful life after divorce and healing.
I’m so excited to see all the places this podcast will go and so thankful to Nicole for bringing me on and giving me an opportunity to take her passion project and run with it alongside of her! I promise to do my best to keep it sacred and authentic. Divorced People Podcast is a safe space, and we are here to guide you, cry with you, and be a stepping stone on your path to healing. Thanks for trusting us!
recovering romanticizer. empath. podcast vision-maker.